Russia May Have Just One Tank Factory, Not Two
There's evidence Omsktranshmash isn't actually producing brand-new T-80s
Russia isn’t about to run out of tanks. But that doesn’t mean the Kremlin isn’t lying about the health of its tank industrial base. Indeed, it’s increasingly apparent Russia has just one functioning tank factory, not two. And that has implications for Russia’s capacity to wage mechanized war in the future.
If the Omsktranshmash plant in Siberia can’t actually build new T-80BVM tanks from scratch—and there’s growing evidence it can’t—then Russia’s entire supply of brand-new tanks depends on a single factory.
Yes, Russia’s main tank factory—Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil—is churning out new T-90M and T-72B3M tanks at a rate of hundreds per year. But there’s a good chance the other purported tank factory—Omsktranshmash—isn’t capable of making T-80s from scratch, as Russian officials have claimed.
Instead, it’s very possible Omsktranshmash can only produce “new” T-80s by restoring old ones left over from the Soviet era. Once the old T-80s run out—and they could do so very soon—Omsktranshmash won’t have anything left to work with.
